Heart of a survivor × Chishiya Shuntaro

Chapter Nineteen

Tension had been building up in the room for the entire game. And the new rule announcement would only make it worse.

BEFORE ROUND 10 STARTS, A NEW RULE WILL BE ADDED.

PLAYERS CAN NOW STEAL OTHER PLAYERS STACKS.

IF A PLAYER POINTS AT ANOTHER PLAYERS STACK, THEY WILL STEAL THEIR STACK.

HOWEVER, IF A PLAYER POINTS AT THEIR OWN STACK, THIS MAKES THE PLAYER IMMUNE TO ANY STEALING ATTEMPTS FOR THAT ROUND.

IF TWO PLAYERS TRY TO STEAL THE SAME STACK, THIS WILL ALSO BE CANCELLED OUT.

This new rule would definitely be interesting. The possibility of all your gems being stolen at any time certainly made everyone feel even more on edge.

Takara mulled over the new rule, wondering on how she should play the next half of the game. She didn't want to steal from other players, she wanted to win in a fair way, not from screwing over another player. She knew that the other players wouldn't have the same mindset as her, so she knew she would want to block attacks as frequently as possible. She decided that her plan would be to stick to either pointing at the stacks in the middle, or at her own gems to protect what she had collected. She still had quite a high number of gems, so she was more likely to have someone try to steal them.

Ding!

Seeing as the new rule would most likely make people be more unpredictable in the first round, Takara chose to block for round ten.

Ding!

Choose!

To no surprise, Kaiyo tried to steal Sana's gems however he blocked the attempt. Three other players including Chishiya all added a large number of gems to their own stacks.

Takara found herself in second to last place again, she felt herself getting more stressed by the second. She worried that her panic could be seen by the other players. She couldn't risk her facade dropping in the last half of the game, it would only make her a target for steals.

The next round she went for the highest stack on the table, she really needed to boost her total. Thankfully, Kaiyo decided to try and steal Chishiya's gems this round making her win the highest amount.

Chishiya had also caught onto Kaiyo and his habit of choosing high amounts, so it wasn't hard to choose to block after Kaiyo tried to steal Sana's gems in the previous round. Chishiya was in first place, so he expected to have stealing attempts often from now on.

Another three rounds had passed and Takara made sure to play them carefully. She had blocked for two of the turns and gained twenty five gems on the other. She took a glance at the scoreboard at the end of round fourteen.

Kaiyo: one hundred and four gems
Sana: eighty gems
Chishiya: one hundred and twenty six gems
Ayaka: seventy five gems
Hiroki: sixty six gems
Izumi: seventy eight gems
Takara: eighty seven gems

Takara had gotten herself in a good position, being third now on the scoreboard. She didn't want to look too pleased on the outside, knowing it might be seen by the other players and make them want to steal from her. She remained stone faced.

Round fifteen was about to start. Only five more rounds after this, she had to be careful with her moves now they were in the last quarter of the game. Any steals now could be fatal.

Ding!

Takara took her time thinking about how to play this round. She had used a block last turn, she didn't want to use too many in a row as it could make her fall behind in the rankings from not trying to earn more stacks.